There's No Place Like Holmes: Sixers vs Spurs

By Jarrett Felix

For those of you who don't know the Sixers played the Spurs yesterday in a game of basketball. Technically. The Spurs trounced the Sixers by 51 points in an impressive display that shows both teams appear to be firmly headed in the direction they want.

For those of you who don't know (I'm guessing significantly more than the first question), my dad and I went to the Sixers game last night. Etrain, Sr is a master of trolling StubHub so we ended up getting a deal on some seats right behind the basket, close to the Spurs bench. 

Despite the fact that the Sixers got absolutely smacked, it was a pretty awesome game to be at. The Spurs are just a team you have to see if you are a hard core basketball fan. Even if it was only technically the Spurs, the offense still looked pretty Spursy. Even when they put in 7' 3" Bobo who briefly became the 2nd best big man in the West at the end of the game. Even though the Spurs look old. Like everybody on the Spurs seemed like they were rocking gray hair. But they were still crafty and balling at a high level.

Leonard didn't play (he's sick so he didn't show up) and Duncan didn't play (um ... I don't exactly know the reason but like its the Spurs and its Duncan and its the Sixers so I didn't expect him to play). Worth noting, Carl Landry and Kendall Marshall also didn't play for the Sixers so it probably all evens out. 

Ginobili was dressed to play, but the most I heard of Ginobili was when I listened to "Jumpman" on the trade ride into Trenton. He chilled on the bench literally the whole game. The Sixers were also dressed to play, but similar to Ginobili I'm not sure they made any shots. 

It was a rough game, even by Sixers standards. They couldn't hit a shot and missed a ton of easy ones. Okafor looked a little off his game as he missed some bunnies but they were getting after him defensively. Aldridge was unstoppable in this one. We had nobody that could cover him. Stauskus looked good though so I mean, faith in the process is restored. We literally stole him from the Kings so any positive is a net positive. Covington might be our best player, so that's pretty cool that he's good but our best player is a dude who spent some time chilling in the D league. I like him though. Alright I think I'm out of positives. Let's move on.

At some point during the game, I stopped watching the game and just started watching the Spurs bench. It was awesome. I loved watching the Spurs bench. Popovic was getting pissed off and calling timeouts up like 40 points. Classic stuff. He also kinda walks around like a zombie. David West is a scary man. Like he was just casually looking into the crowd and I was worried if we made direct eye contact I would just cry from pure fear. And Duncan is the man.

That's my #1 takeaway. Curry is still my favorite. Please not even a question. But I do really like and respect Duncan. He was talking and advising all the players on his team, even the scrubs that won't be relevant to the team until after he's retired. He was in the Coach's huddle a few times, looking like he could easily be a coach, learning from things. People were yelling at him the whole game (positive and negative) even though he wasn't even playing, and he literally didn't even flinch. He was just chillin. At the end of the game, he purposely waited at mid court to see Okafor and talk to him (so did David West btw). Give him some advise and say keep your head up kid. The power of veterans ... Take note Hinkie.

Plus, honestly, (and I have no idea, I'm just speculating on literally like no evidence so I probably should delete this comment, boom roasted myself), he just seems like a nice, fun, approachable goof. He was joking around with people, listening intently to people's thoughts and doing some fun stuff. He was fake fighting with Parker on the way into the half time locker room. He was like leaning his head down into someone's back during a time out like a little kid (or me) trying to annoy their mom or something. I can't help but feel like he's a perfect mentor for LA and that Aldridge will fit beautifully in his place.

And (I'm stealing this from others) it's funny to think about the difference with Duncan and Kobe. That might have been Duncan's last game in Philly (and I know Kobe is from philly) but Duncan isn't having some like farewell tour. He's just chillin, helping out, trying to make his team better. And whenever he does retire, he probably will just like tell the team and that's it. Tell Pop so that Pop can leave with him if he'd like. 

I now have a strategy for Sixers-Warriors. Watch Steph Curry at all times. I'm excited.